"This is what Jesus is teaching / proclaiming here. What does it look like for those with higher status / honour / privilege to live the year of the Lord's favour?"
Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between August 28 to September 3 Inclusive
Proper 17, Ordinary Time 22
August 29, 2010, Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Read the lesson: Luke 14:1, 7-14, The Message; or Luke 14:1, 7-14, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
Click here, Luke 14:1, 7-14, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.
Sermon by the Rev. Dr. George Hermanson, "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?"
As I noted in last week's commentary on Luke 13:10-17, Verses 2 to 6 which are omitted from this week's reading are the third and final healing on the Sabbath noted by Luke alone.
Bruce Malina (Page 284-286, see footnote below.) offers helpful background of "dropsy" and its connection with the following verses:
in ancient literature "dropsy" was often used as a metaphor for greed. It was understood to be a disease in which the victim became thirsty, but drinking to assuage thirst only increased the victim's thirst all the more. ... Thus a man thirsty for money or status is never satisfied with gain; the more he gets, the more he wants.
Thus Verses 2 to 6 serve not only as a heads up that Jesus will be confronting the lawyers and Pharisees about their rules for proper Sabbath behaviour, the upcoming meal will also serve as an opportunity for challenges about seeking after social status, and about concern for reciprocal hospitality - what I do for you now, you'll do for me later.
Personal aside. I had no idea what "dropsy" was - never heard of it except here. The term is a shortened form of "hydropsy" - "hydro" being the Greek for "water." Today it is called "edema" - swelling caused by excessive water retention. This can affect various parts of the body, but dropsy seems to be associated mostly with swollen legs.
Verse 1. It is important to remember, as Luke has observed for us back in Luke 13:22, that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And so this, and all reported encounters with religious authorities, are going to clarify and sharpen the division between Jesus' vision of right now, right here, being the time and the place for the realization of God's Kingdom, and the authorities' anxiety to keep social peace as defined and enforced by the Roman occupiers.
Thus Jesus is not being watched closely to see what they might learn from him. He is being watched closely to assess just how much of a threat he really might be.
The ploy of inviting Jesus to dinner would draw him out of public view into the private space of the Pharisee's home and allow them to test Jesus away from the gathering, admiring crowds.
Verse 7. Notice that Luke here reports on Jesus' inner thoughts / observations. As a low-to-no status person, Jesus would have a well-trained eye for seeing how high status people jockey to maintain their place in the pecking order.
Luke says that Jesus is going to tell them a parable. But what actually follows is a series of teachings / instructions and is not a parable. The parable doesn't come until Verses 16 to 24.
Verses 8 to 11. How to seat guests with various degrees of honour is still an etiquette nightmare for hosts.
Notice that Jesus is not teaching that such honouring be done away with all together - that all be treated equally. Rather, in this case, he advises a strategy of deliberately and consciously living beneath one's presumed status in order to receive even greater honouring later.
Some scholars speculate that this teaching would particularly apply to Luke and his first readers as they were higher status Gentiles, and the mixed-status Christian communities would require them to live beneath their comfort zone.
The assurance in this teaching is that THE Host of hosts - God - would later recognize and honour their accepting of lower social standing.
Verses 12 to 14. Jesus then ups the ante with this "put your money where your mouth is" teaching.
That is, not only must higher class people temporarily accept lower status for themselves, they should also pay to extend higher class privileges to the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind - knowing full well that they will never receive reciprocal treatment in this lifetime!
Notice here that the listing: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind - reflect those listed in Jesus' initial declaration for his ministry way back in Luke 4:18:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
That word, "proclaim," has lost its real impact in our modern ears. We kind of hear it as, "make an announcement," or "send out an email to everyone." It has been translated as "Gospel," and as "Good News."
But its fuller meaning is "royal decree." Jesus is not just announcing the year of the Lord's favour. He is declaring it; enacting it; making it real; bringing it into effect, into force.
Just as Caesar then, or a modern legislature today creates new realities simply by deciding and declaring (proclaiming) them, that is exactly what Jesus does. He proclaims the year of the Lord's favour and then sets out to live it and show what it means / looks like to others.
This is what Jesus is teaching / proclaiming here. What does it look like for those with higher status / honour / privilege to live the year of the Lord's favour?
There seems to be a spate of books and blogs and reality TV shows based on "My Year of Living ..."
I wonder what it would be like if we could get every single Christian congregation to spend a whole year following only these two small teachings?
David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca
* Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Bruce Malina, et. al., Social Science Commentary on ... The Synoptic Gospels; The Gospel of John; The Book of Acts; The Letters of Paul; The Book of Revelation; and others.
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